Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Priscilla Dowell was part of the Maryland Dowell family who
migrated to North Carolina right after the Revolutionary War. Priscilla’s
grandfather, Peter Dowell, Sr., and five sons settled in what was then Rowan
County in the 1780s. Prior to 1770 Rowan County included what today are 20
counties in the northwest part of North Carolina as well as a big part of
present day Tennessee. Wilkes County was formed in 1777.

Priscilla’s great-grandfather, Philip Dowell, “appeared” in
Southern Maryland in the 1690s as a fully functioning tobacco planter. Although
several researchers who have published pedigree charts of the Internet claim to
know who Philip’s father is, they don’t agree and I have yet to see proof that
support any of their claims. In 1702 Philip married Mary Tydings, the daughter
of Richard Tydings—a former indentured servant who had come to Maryland from
England in the middle of the 17th century and subsequently had acquired
substantial land holdings. Although Philip, or his father, is assumed to have
come from the British Isles, the exact origin of the Maryland Dowells is
unknown.

Through analysis of the Y-chromosomes of living descendants
of three of Philip’s sons, we have established exactly what the results of a
111 marker DNA test would be if Philip himself could be tested. These results
have established that the Dowells who appeared in Virginia in the first half of
the 18th century have not shared a common paternal ancestor with the
Maryland Dowells for at least 3,000 years—long before surnames were
introduced in Europe. Neither of these groups have DNA results that come close
to matching the handful of Dowells currently living on the other side of the
Atlantic who have been tested to date.

Priscilla’s grandparents, Peter, Sr., and Elizabeth (Owens)
Dowell moved from Southern Maryland to Frederick County Maryland about a decade
before the Revolutionary War. That area is now part of present day Montgomery
County in the western suburbs of the District of Columbia. Her father, Philip,
Sr., and four of his brothers played various roles in the Revolution. Whether
it was because of war related travel to Carolina or the land bounties offered
to veterans after the war, Peter, Sr., and five of his sons moved to Rowan
County in the 1780s. My 4th great-grandfather Richard Dowell was one
of these sons and Priscilla’s father Philip was another.

What little we know about Priscilla’s early life suggests
she was probably the youngest of nine or ten children of Philip, Sr., and
Priscilla “Nacky” (Owen) Dowell. Her age in 1860 according to the census was 70
and her birthplace was Maryland. One of these is probably incorrect. Priscilla’s
family was probably getting established in North Carolina by 1790. Clearly many
of her older siblings were born in Maryland but it is unlikely that Priscilla
was born there. As I reported in an earlier post, Priscilla could not sign her
own name to her 1859 will. Was this because she was illiterate? Were the Philip
Dowell’s daughters not given even the most basic education although they came
from a family of property? One cousin of mine has speculated about whether
Priscilla could have suffered a stroke or other infirmity that prevented her
from signing her name more elaborately that simply making “her mark”.

I have yet to discover additional circumstances of Priscilla’s
life prior to 1859 with the exception of a bequest made to her by her father in
his 1823 will. In that document Philip gave her “a Negro Girl by the name of
Juda, and the Heirs of her Body.” Other enslaved persons transferred by this
will to various of Priscilla’s immediate family carried the names that appear
to be Siney, Lydia, Ginny, Catey, Timssey, Jacob, Joe, David, Richman, and
Henderson. Is it mere coincidence that some of these names reappear a
generation later?